All That Glitters
There are many things that are not as they seem.
For example … right before we headed into our weekly Rummikub games here at the old people place, a bad accident occurred right outside the clubhouse. I’m not exactly sure what happened. All I know for sure is a young woman driving a fancy Tesla bounced off one curb and across the narrow driveway and knocked over our new ‘brick’ sign.
I guess we never thought about how the sign got there. It was just put up recently. No big deal.
I won’t go into a rant about the quality of things here or the lack of the same. It is what it is. Even if it hadn’t been knocked over, I doubt the sign would have lasted long. It was some kind of plastic wrapped around foam. Crazy, right?
I’m sure the young lady was glad it was a fake brick sign, otherwise she could have been seriously injured and her car would have sustained much heavier damage.
Think over some things in your own experience … a highly rated restaurant where the food is less than stellar … a cruise where it is not as clean or elegant as expected … a pair of britches that looked great on the online model but didn’t match your dreams of what you hoped it would look like on you. Sigh. Disappointments.
Don’t judge a book by its cover is a common old saying. The Bible has better sayings.
God told Samuel when he was looking for the next king of Israel, ‘For the Lord sees not as a man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.’ 1 Samuel 16:7
In Matthew, Jesus warned of false prophets who appeared as helpless and good as sheep but were really ‘ravenous wolves.’ In John, Jesus said plainly, ‘Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.’
Proverbs 31:30 ‘Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.’ Great words – hard to live out. That verse is definitely a challenge for my deceitfully happy face I don when I’m trying to be sociable. The truth is, the Lord knows my heart. Sigh.
The ultimate verses that apply here are from 1 Corinthians 13.
‘Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging symbol. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned but have not love, it profits me nothing.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails … And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.’
And we know God’s love is the real deal. Pure gold!!!
John 3:16 – ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’
Blessings
Kara Beth
